Starmer’s ‘nice pal’ shared £8MILLION pot of earnings for work on Chagos ‘give up’ deal
A close friend of Sir Keir Starmer shared an £8million pot for his work negotiating the Chagos Islands ‘surrender’ deal to cede the territory to Mauritius, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Philippe Sands KC, who describes himself as a ‘great friend’ of the Prime Minister, pocketed his share of the sum while acting as chief legal counsel to Mauritius between 2010 and 2024.
In that time he secured the controversial deal which will see Britain hand back sovereignty of the strategically important archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, and lease the Diego Garcia military base for 99 years – at an average cost of £101m a year.
Prof. Sands, a leading international human rights lawyer who is also close with Attorney General Lord Hermer, led a series of legal teams who were almost exclusively tasked with fighting for the cession of the island to Mauritius.
Together they were allocated at least £8,300,000 from the Mauritian state budget, official documents show.
While the exact figure Prof. Sands took home is unknown, his role as chief counsel will have seen him earn the largest cut, according to one international lawyer, who said a large bonus could also be paid on the deal’s completion.
Prof. Sands, who was controversially pictured hoisting a Mauritius flag over the Chagos islands in 2022, joked about ‘humiliating Britain completely’ during a talk at the University of Cambridge in 2023.
He has been branded a ‘mercenary’ by one Labour MP, who accused him of ‘pretending to care about rights’.
Philippe Sands KC, who describes himself as a ‘great friend’ of the Prime Minister, shared an £8million pot for his work negotiating the Chagos Islands ‘surrender’ deal
Prof. Sands, who was controversially pictured hoisting a Mauritius flag over the Chagos islands in 2022, has joked about ‘humiliating Britain completely’
Graham Stringer, who has urged fellow Labour MPs to block the deal, told the Daily Mail: ‘Philippe Sands is making a fortune representing the interests of a foreign country.
‘Sands, the Prime Minister and the Attorney General all believe that international courts, dominated by judges from China are more important than our own democracy.
‘The sooner we take control back for the people of this country, and not for foreign courts with lawyers making millions, the better.’
One of the International Court of Justice judges who ruled Britain should give the islands to Mauritius ‘as rapidly as possible’ in 2019, effectively forcing the UK to begin negotiations over the archipelago, is a former Chinese government official who backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Stringer claimed that ‘Sands pretends to care about rights but in actual fact he is trying to regress the Chagossians who don’t want Mauritian control.
‘He’s a mercenary working in his own interest with the aid of Chinese Judges.’
While Beatrice Pompe, who obtained a High Court injunction which temporarily prevented the UK government from signing the deal with Mauritius, called Prof. Sands a ‘snake’.
The British Chagossian claimed the huge fees he earned shows he ‘pretended to work for the good of the Chagossian people but was in it for himself’.
She added: ‘Forget the little people that he used to talk about, victims of crimes against humanity and human rights abuses who he used to care about.
‘He’s clearly supporting wherever the cash flows’.
Prof. Sands is far from the only lawyer representing Mauritius who personally knows Sir Keir.
In a now deleted social media post, the lawyer boasted about the Mauritius flag flying over the Chagos Islands
Bertrice Pompe (left), who obtained a High Court injunction which temporarily prevented the UK government from signing the deal with Mauritius, called Prof. Sands a ‘snake’
His team included Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who got to know the Labour leader through their work in international law and they delivered a shared speech at Chatham House in 2013.
While the PM and Alison Macdonald QC both represented activists who broke into Royal Air Force bases to protest the Iraq War in joint proceedings before Law Lords in 2006.
The lawyers were paid varying amounts by Mauritius each year, with a fee of over £1.3m in 2022/23 the highest, budget documents from the Mauritius Prime Minister’s Office show.
While a fixed fee of £2m was earned for their work between 2010 and 2015.
Prof. Sands, who has compared Britain’s possession of the archipelago to the Russian invasion of Crimea, was handed an honorary degree at the University of Cambridge for his achievements last week.
In his 2022 book, The Last Colony, he claimed Britain’s promotion of self-determination for the Falkland Islands but not the Chagossians is racist.
It shows it is ‘one rule for whites, another for blacks,’ he wrote.
In evidence submitted to the House of Commons in 2024, Prof. Sands wrote: ‘As the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’ is illegal under international law, Britain is currently in illegal occupation of a part of the territory of Mauritius, and of the continent of Africa.
‘It follows, too, regrettably, that the operation of the military base at Diego Garcia is not in conformity with international law.
‘So long as the UK’s illegal occupation continues, Britain’s position is no different from that of South Africa in relation to Namibia (from 1971 to 1994), Russia in relation to Crimea and other parts of the territory of Ukraine (since 2014), or China in relation to certain claims in relation to the South China Sea’.
The international lawyer has proposed a ‘national security’ justification for ceding the archipelago, an argument that has repeatedly been used by the PM.
Prof. Sands has been friends with Sir Keir for more than 20 years. He was a founding member of Matrix Chambers, where the PM was previously co-head of chambers. Lord Hermer also worked with Prof. Sands at the chambers for 10 years.
A group of Chagossians including Misley Mandarin and his father (pictured) set foot on the archipelago in defiance of the British government’s exclusion zone on Tuesday
The archipelago’s largest island, Diego Garcia (pictured), is home to a strategically important joint UK-US military base
Prof. Sands later campaigned for Starmer to become Labour leader and described him as ‘generous, humorous and empathetic’.
The PM visited Mauritius in 2013, in a trip apparently arranged with the help of Sands.
He was granted Mauritanian citizenship and even received the East African nation’s highest civilian award, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean, for his role in securing the territory.
But he was dismissed in 2024 as the country’s chief legal council.
Chagossians have previously questioned whether his close links to Sir Keir were behind the Government rushing through a deal to give the territory back to Mauritius.
Following the deal’s announcement last year, Jean-Francois Nellan, a campaigner from the group Chagossian Voices, said: ‘Why are they rushing this? Is it because the Prime Minister is friends with Philippe Sands?’
Senior Tory MP Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, told the Daily Mail: ‘Keir Starmer’s ‘great friend’ Philippe Sands is key to the Chagos Surrender that is undermining our national interest and our security.
‘Like Starmer, Peter Mandelson, Jonathan Powell and everyone else associated with the Chagos scandal, I believe that Sands is happy to sell out our country.
‘The Conservatives will continue to fight the Chagos Surrender every step of the way.
‘Labour and their lefty lawyer friends cannot be trusted to stand up for Britain on the international stage. Only the Conservatives will defend our country’s interests.’
Prof. Sands campaigned for the PM as Labour leader in the party’s 2020 election.
A year earlier he interviewed him at a literary festival for a talk titled ‘Brexit Britain: The State of the Union’.
And in 2016, Sir Keir tweeted that would be ‘interviewing my friend Philippe Sands tonight at the launch of his book on origins of genocide and crimes against humanity’.
Prof. Sands has been contacted for comment.
The UK purchased the Chagos Islands for £3m in 1968 but Mauritius argued it was forced to give it away to gain independence from Britain.
A deal, which could cost the taxpayer up to £30bn, was signed on 22 May last year, despite a last minute legal challenge by two Chagossians.
The Tories said it was ‘an act of national self-harm’, which left the country ‘more exposed to China’ because of Beijing’s ties with Mauritius.
Donald Trump branded it an ‘act of great stupidity’.
The US President has been opposed to the agreement because the archipelago’s largest island, Diego Garcia, is home to a strategically important joint UK-US military base.
But Mr Trump later backtracked and agreed it was the ‘best’ deal Britain could have made.
Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam praised the deal as a ‘great victory for the Mauritian nation’.
He said: ‘I have always said we must obtain our sovereignty over the totality of the Chagos, including Diego Garcia.
‘The Chagossians must be able to live once again on their islands.’
An FCDO Spokesperson said: ‘The Diego Garcia military base is crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies, and this treaty guarantees that UK-US operations at the base will continue for generations to come.’
